It is fall. CIA analyst Jack Ryan, historian and former Marine, is vacationing in London with his wife and young daughter. Suddenly, right before his eyes, a terrorist group launches its deadly attack. Instinctively, he dives forward to break it up, and is shot. It is not until he wakes up in the hospital that he learns whose lives he has saved - the Duke and Duchess of Kent.

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Publisher's Summary

It is fall. CIA analyst Jack Ryan, historian and former Marine, is vacationing in London with his wife and young daughter. Suddenly, right before his eyes, a terrorist group launches its deadly attack.

Instinctively, he dives forward to break it up, and is shot. It is not until he wakes up in the hospital that he learns whose lives he has saved - the Duke and Duchess of Kent.

By his impulsive act, he has gained both the gratitude of a nation and the enmity of its most dangerous men - men who do not sit on their hate.

Patriot Games is a prequel to The Hunt for Red October and has all the excitement and energy of Clancy's famous first book.

I vaguely remember reading the book back in the 80's, I have seen and enjoyed the movie dozens of times but listening to the book was more fun than I anticipated. I'm not a purist when it comes to adapting books to movies and I appreciated the adaptions made in the translation of this title. The movie is fabulous in it's own right but listening to the book let my imagination visually soar. Scott Brick reading was phenomenal as ever. His inflections throughout the story are spot on - I have a bad habit of gasping at exciting points in the storyline while listening to a point my husband thinks something is wrong with me. The storyline is just one entertaining wild ride. Another very much enjoyed audiobook that I would recommend!

Admittedly, I'm a fan of this series. Having skipped around a little re which ones I was listening to I decided to go back and listen to all in order. (I did skip Red October due to the quality concerns expressed by other reviewers.) All is first rate in this book. Even though there is a reasonable mix of characters and nationalities, Clancy keeps it clear enough that you don't find yourself wondering , 'who is this again?" Scott Brick handles the various accents exceptionally well. The pacing is just right to keep you fully involved but not so fast that you lose track of things.

I'm sure others may prefer different portrayals of Jack Ryan in some of Tom Clancy's other novels. This one really is a story about Jack Ryan and his early family, whereas in the other novels, the story is the focus, with Jack as one of the principal characters. This story told me, that both the author and I are somewhat of Anglophiles. As with all the Ryan novels this is not a short story, however, I believe the plot moves a a steadier pace here then elsewhere in the series.

Though we are introduced to Jack in "The Hunt For Red October", the story told in "Patriot Games" predates that novel in the Ryan timeline. In Hunt, Jack is already a full-time employee of the CIA, while when this novel starts he is still a writer of history and a professor of history at the United States Naval Academy. At the start of his family's vacation in England, he foils a terrorist attack by an Irish group calling itself the Ulster Liberation Army, wounding one terrorist and killing another, rescuing the Prince & Princess of Wales and sustaining serious injuries. While in the the hospital he meets the Prince, the Queen and her consort. As an reward for his efforts he receives an honorary knighthood and after assisting in the conviction of of Sean Miller, the ULA member he wounded we are treated to a little behind the scenes look at the Yoeman Warders of the Tower of London.

Jack and his family return to the States and Jack tries to settle back into the relatively dull life of a history teacher at the Naval Academy. On Christmas Day, the ULA is able to free Sean Miller as he's being transferred on a ferry to incarceration in a prison on the Isle or Wright. Miller is able to convince the head of the organization to embarass the IRA by killing Jack, his wife Cathy and his young daughter Sally, while the head of political arm of the IRA is on a fund raising tour in the states. They miss any chance to attack Jack, when he responds to an urgent call that his injured wife and daughter, who had avoided being shot but were injured in the crash of Cathy's Porsche, have been rushed to the hospital where they eventually survive and return home. Of course the ULA terrorists and their black American helpers all escape. While his daughter is in the hospital, he spends part of his time at CIA analyzing the info the have on the ULA and helps the French locate and capture a female assassin they have been seeking.

The Prince and Princess of Wales visit America and accept a previously offered invitation too dinner at the Ryan's. They are joined by Jack's friend Robby Jackson, a naval aviator, and his wife. The ULA and their American helpers attack jack's home, killing almost the entire Secret Service and British protection details and initially capturing Jack & his family, the royalls and Robby's wife Sissy. Luckily, Robby had just gone to the bathroom and was missed by the terrorists who did not anticipate he was there as they assumed Sissy was a servant. While the majority of the terrorists leave the house to aid in fighting the security detail, Robby locates Jack's shotgun, frees the prisoners and with the unwilling help of one of the terrorists escape by boat to the Naval Academy, where with the assistance of the academy's boat squadron and Marines, assist the Coast Guard, FBI, local and state police in the pursuit and eventual capture of the surviving terrorists. They return to the Academy, where it turns out they arrived just in time for Cathy to give birth to Jack, Jr. who will have dual godparents, the Prince & Pricess and Robby and Sissy.

This is another excellent novel by Tom Clancy and in my opinion is very well read by Scott Brick. I like the acents that Scott Brick uses and while I don't consider myself to be an expert on different accents I can always tell weather the charactor speaking is English, Irish, Scottish Austrillian or even South Aferican by listening to the accent Mister Brick gives to the Charactor in question. He doesn't do as well with female charactors as he does with male charactors but I don't feel comfortable critising him for that. Dispite what some may say or think this is the second book in which Jack Ryan puts in an apperance even if it is the first book in which he does more than put in a breif cameo apperance. Jack Ryan did make a very breif apperance in Without Remorse discussing with his father his reasons for going into the Marines. Great book, well read, what more could you ask for.

Would you consider the audio edition of Patriot Games to be better than the print version?

I love this series, the books and stories are fantastic, but Scott Brick? PLEASE!!! He is good for Kevin J Anderson and Brian Herbert, even good on some of the non fiction but he is WAY TOO PREDICTABLE, if he were any more predictable, when his timber raises or he reads the words faster he is getting to a plot jink or action point. When he reads slower and more subdued he is reading a background point. I mean I would rather have Michael Prichard or Diamond Phillips read these books than Scott Brick. Like kissing your sister, even if she is beautiful there is no spark.

Print version is much better because I have a chance of interpreting for myself and it isn't the way this guy reads it.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Patriot Games?

There are too many memorable moments to pick just one.

Would you listen to another book narrated by Scott Brick?

I try not to unless it is a Kevin J Anderson or Brian Herbert book. For some reason he can do fine with them but when he does Clancy he doesn't quite get it right.

I probably would not listen to this book again, I would prefer to read it. Clancy gets into a lot of details to make you really understand the Characters and place yourself in the exact same scenerios that the characters are in. But the Narration by Scott Brick seemed to be so monotone and lacking inflection, that it made Clancy's writings seem overdone and lacking in sentence structure and story development. I almost stopped listening to the book entirely because of this, but I didn't want to throw the money away entirely, so I slowly finished the book.

What did you like best about this story?

Clancy's writing is very in depth, it is wonderful to see him delve so deeply into his Characters, and really allow the reader to know "ordinary" details about the character that make them feel real. He doesn't just bring in a character to play a small part and kill him off for the required effect. He tells the story of the man, then let's him die so that we can truly understand the effect that Clancy is trying to put forth. This is of course just one example, and a very grim one, at best.

What aspect of Scott Brick’s performance would you have changed?

Clancy gets into a lot of details to make you really understand the Characters and place yourself in the exact same scenerios that the characters are in. But the Narration by Scott Brick seemed to be so monotone and lacking inflection, that it made Clancy's writings seem overdone and lacking in sentence structure and story development. I almost stopped listening to the book entirely because of this, but I didn't want to throw the money away entirely, so I slowly finished the book.

I absolutely love my audible account, makes its from enjoying a book to loving the stories found in the books.
Do forgive my errors in the reviews i do have dyslexia but i will share my love with everyone

Tom Clancy wrote this novel after his first book but is based before, Jack Ryan is a history teacher at the naval academy and loves to write history books, several Irish terrorists dont like how the IRA is doing there ops and are going to do things there way.

When Ryan's vacation is ruined while out in london working on his newest novel and he steps in to stop a terrorist attack he did not realize that in his act of heroism his life is changed forever.

Tom Clancy takes his time getting from the start to the finish and never makes a huge leap in his book that you have to accept ryan figured out. he will show you how Ryan takes his time with all the information to figure out what he needs to find the terrorist.

Scott Brick to me could have worked a little more on his naration, he tried to hard to copy people from the movie and you can tell he tried but at the same time is not very close and so it kind of makes the book feel like sometimes it was a joke.

This is story telling at its best. Full of detail and exciting to listen too. The narrator occasionally mixed his accents but excepting this he was very good and added to the listening experience. I will not give any details away about the plot but will say that I highly recommend this book. A must listen too!!!

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Daryl

BRADFORD, United Kingdom

8/21/11

Overall

"Emotional Rollercoaster"

I read the other reviews with interest and had to agree that this is not Scott Brick's best piece of work. His attempt at English and Irish accents are a little cringing. Get past that and the storyline does take a while to get going. HOWEVER, there is a part in the middle of the story that almost had me in tears! I don't want to give the story away, but let's just say that as a husband and father it really got to me. This is a story where you can really empathise with the characters.
I decided to start with this book as the first Jack Ryan book and follow up with the second "Red Rabbit". One slight problem, Audible don't have it on their list - Grrrr!

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

andy

brentwood, United Kingdom

8/15/11

Overall

"Great book"

Although the narrator takes a little getting used to, and as others say his accents are horrendous. The story however is great. Starts quickly and so many twists, even though i had seen the film years ago, there was so much more in this. I listen to it in the car and dont want to arrive anywhere as it means i will have to stop listening.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

TomH

East Yorkshire

3/18/12

Overall

"Great story- just ignore the accents"

So long as you can get past most of the UK characters speaking with Dick Van Dyke accents it is a fine story.
Odd however that the publisher (or at least the person who wrote audible's "publisher's notes") doesn't appear to have read or heard the story (maybe they saw the film?) The Duke and Duchess of Kent definitely do not feature in this book.

0 of 0 people found this review helpful

W. Reid

3/9/11

Overall

"Patriot Games"

Though the book is interesting and I really like Tom Clancy novels, the narrator makes it painful to listen at times - being very lethargic and pedantic in his delivery. Glad it wasn't the first audiobook I bought, because I think it would have been the last.

1 of 2 people found this review helpful

Paul

Crieff, United Kingdom

7/30/11

Overall

"Diabolical"

This is my least favourite Tom Clancy book but that's no excuse for the diabolical narration. The attempts at English and Irish accents are just terrible, the English sound straight out of Mary Poppins, never met a copper speak like that. The Irish accents just hurt my ears, I stopped listening to it after part 1 I just couldn't take it any more

0 of 1 people found this review helpful

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